Yang Shuo along with Macau and Cheng
Chau Island are three of my favourite travel places in the South China area.
I am not that well travelled in Asia,
really, so I will explain why I love all of these places, and here I will write more on Yang Shuo.
I could do without the packs of listless
western backpackers starying witlessly at televisions, and so that is not really why I love Yang Shuo.
Truthfully, it is a lot cheaper and
smaller here than the larger Guilin, and millions of tourists correctly flock to that major Asian travel destination.
The entire province is full of these
exotic and marvellous tiny mountains, and to stand on the sidewalk in a very small town such as this is, and to to wonder
how Nature placed real mountains there...for they rise so sharply, that they can never be called hills...
This town has it all, as a travel spot.
My second trip here unearther much more
than my first: that the spectacular Folk Villages of Ethnic Minorities - complete with real villagers, wearing their original
costumes, and living in their original homes - are only half a day's ride or less - you can rent a car and travel to
them quite easily.
These places are a photographer's dream,
and also so satisfying for those of us who want to sample the breadth and the depth of this great land of China, her tolerance
and her variety.
I could only make it to one village,
and stayed there for some time.
I took a group car from the well known
restaurant Jacko's - as I stayed in the clean and reasonable Good Companion Hotel adjacent to the eating place.
If you value safety, it would not be
impractical to pay the driver to drive more slowly, and negotiate the lethal hairpin curves in the mountainous roads more
carefully. He did not drive badly, our driver, it is just worrisome to one such as myself who suffered 7 years from
a car accident in my youth.
Added to the mountain roads was the
horrifying sudden presence of a pea-soup fog.
This type of fog always reminds me of
horror movies set in the city of London, usually set in the time of Jack the Ripper!
Another third reason to bribe the driver
to go slowly with extrea cash - and more delightful - are the wonderful houses set along the road, with regular Chinese villagers
doing interesting household tasks, such as building scaffolding on their precariously placed and quite large homes.
We set out quite early from the front
of Jacko's, and when I said a few prayers as we were entering the fog, a few other passengers guessed what I was up to.
According to my hands,
I laughed, I am supposed to live a little longer!
I am also supposed to marry again this
time a happy and long marriage, and also to be a very very rich woman - both of which have failed to materialize, so I am
not holding my breath concerning my Glorious Destiny.
We arrived at a sort of gate with tourist
souvenirs. These were sold by Real Folk Villagers dressed in authentic embroidered and beribboned dresses, with head-dresses,
and long black hair done up in coils and braids.
They were quite aggressive, and after
I bought one tiny purse to get rid of them of course they persisted and sold me another one.
They chuckled and laughed with us, and
had gone to the Lets Sell In English school of linguistics.
The irony that these poor uneducated
people had better outfits on that most of the tourists in Hong Kong with their baggy shorts, baggy t-shirts, straight cotton
skirts, and shoestring strap t-shirts, was not lost to me.
I longed for the Old World when peoples
had individuality and natural colourfulness.
I noted that the government of China
had encouraged and supported the people in charging non-villagers to enter their guarded area, as a way of providing badly
needed income to them, to preserve the uniqueness of their culture.
We got our tickets, p[acked our souvenirs,
used the clean toilets, and then walked along a gently curving road, beginning to see in the distance the exquisite terraced
fields, known all over the world for their pastoral beauty.
The government of China, noting how
much interest we tourists have in these ethnic minorities, has been doing admirable work in countering prejudice against non-Han
Chinese, as my friend the Shenzhen banker Cecilia explained to me in detail penalities at universities for showing bias against
students of enthnic minorities.
(I can only add here that I hope the
ancient buildings of Yunnan will still be there when I finally get around to photographing that area: one famous travel guide
mentions how quickly the wrecking ball has been demolishing them!)
In five trips of Asia, ten trips
to Europe, and five trips to the Caribbean - I can urge other world travellers, this Guangxi village exceeded my expectations,
and was one of the most joyful and beautiful and intriguing travels of my entire life.
Why?
The nature was exquisite.
The way of life was something we never
see - like going back five hundred or even one thousand years in times.
The people were more than friendly and
patient, considering tourists must look at them like zoo animals. After the initial payment, quite small, they were
not pushy or greedy for tourist money.
They were quite poised and dignified,
considering how we stared at them!
After the costumes and hairstyles, worn
only by the women, as the men dressed just like other Chinese men, in sweaters, slacks, and jackets, I was struck first by
the amazing architecture.
I am a fresh and unusual thinker, as
I saw immediately that for space and environment, these so-called poor people had more richness in their housing than most
dwellers of big Western cities.
The houses were large, and the living
rooms were more like meeting halls, enough space to hold an extended family having a large meal.
I noted that the food seemed less interesting
and quite dull compared with what even my low-income Han Chinese students required in Nanning or Shenzhen.
I could be wrong here, as the ingredients
they used were fresh: i managed to get inside the houses and share a few meals, after I paid for photographs quite voluntarily.
(Yes, I am going to send them copies
when I get around to it - one day).
I felt like a child going to Disneyland.
Except that this was real life.
The supportiveness of us tourists -
I want to write we tourists, what is right? - and the caring government of China - has fuelled a small rush of building in
the village.
None of the building is ugly or too
modern, it is building their houses exactly as they have been building them for centuries, and again, to anyone who works
in design, art, or architecture, how compelling a visit to such a village is.
I broke with the travel party, as I
did not have enough time to study each and every street, each building, and talk to the people long enough to get right into
their homes.
The babies just delighted me, and they
would you, too, for they wore
real silver hats on their heads
To see a baby jiggling along on its
mother's shoulder, shaking silver dangles, is a wondrous sight to see.
Our entire set of values is displaced
when we travel to such a place, how we see the world is shaken up and to see baby caps and houses that only rich would have
in our own countries worn by people who are considered lower class due to their lack of education, yet who wake up every day
in a natural paradise...
I found the one and only hotel in town,
and slept in a bedroom oddly reminscent
of Canada, with its floral quilts, freezing cold, and wood-lined rooms.
I stayed for some time, and hope to
return to other villages in this area, though I want to rent a car with more assertive types, who will pay the driver for
the day and night,
so he does not need to rush those roads.
